This isn’t anything new, but lately I’ve been noticing more car talking going on out there in the world of traffic. Car talking (or chatting), whichever you prefer, is when two vehicles pull close to the center of the road and the drivers briefly engage in conversation about a topic which requires hogging of the road.
Most of the time it also means that the person behind the “car talkers” has to wait momentarily until they come to their senses and realize that while their conversation might be important it’s probably best to pull aside and get out of their vehicles or set up a time later to continue their discussion on “chocolate-covered cobwebs.”
Whenever I’m in this situation, where I’m blocked by the car talkers, I typically will resort to a couple of methods to put an end to the road nuisance ahead of me. One method, which I believe we’ve all used, is to maniacally drum on the horn like a frantic head hunter with bone-pierced eyebrows. This method, while extremely annoying and chaotic brings the car talkers back to reality where vehicles travel at a decent pace towards their destinations.
The other method is to roll down all of your windows, tune your radio to the Oldies station (My Boyfriend’s Back or Put Your Head On My Shoulder work great) and turn the volume up as far as it’ll go without making yourself deaf. This hasn’t worked for me as successfully as the first method (horn blarring), but on occassion it seems to drive a point across, that is, either pull over to the side of the road, save your conversation for a more convieniant time or face oldies “bumping”.
I have to admit that I haven’t noticed such conversations taking place. Then again, my cars has a big mouth…lol.
Here across my surroundings, what you get to see often are two bus or truck drivers from opposite lanes engaging into conversation. Naturally, this happens only if you’re unlucky enough to have to cross a 2-lane only road to get to work.
They still go vroom, so what’s the big deal with them anyway?
I’m a fairly new driver; however, I’ve yet to notice such on the roads. But it’s always good to take a few pointers on how to handle one if you do come accross such an event. Furthermore, I was wondering, where is that picture of the two cars from? From what I can tell, it seems to be 2 BMW 3-series and that is one of my all time favourite cars. I’d love to know if there is a wallpaper of it somewhere.
Jorgeq: One of these days you will witness such an occurence. When you do, remember all of those who have endured through these situations. Remember, pounding on your horn always seems to work!
Beto: I dislike crossing two-way traffic, period. It just freaks me out, having to check both ways and never knowing if at the last second someone might speed up or turn the corner is frightening. Whenever I’m about to cross two-way traffic I always throw caution to the wind and just bolt out there like Bo Duke.
AkaXakA : It’s not the vroooming really, it’s moreso the fact that people use their cars to engage in conversations, sometimes in the middle of traffic.
NIMA: Yes, it’s something (as I mentioned above) that you’ll witness first hand and then of course resort to certain measures to get the traffic flowing again.
As for the picture, send me an email (erik@kartooner.com) and I’ll send you a high-resolution version of the photo.
One of my old favourites that one of my friend plays frequently (generally on holiday and in traffic) is ‘silly bugger’.
When he’s in a queue he waits a while until the traffic in front has move on about one car-length and then offers for the car at a junction to go infront of him. Then, just as they start to accellerate he pulls quickly into the gap and pretends they didn’t exist..
Harsh, but amusing to the passengers.
I prefer the horn method!
Interesting idea. Horn is still the best metod. Of course if you have something heavy and useless in the hand you can use it :)